Jana Ctverackova - Co Si Muzete Zahrat Anglicky Apr 2026

Before she even learns her lines, she spends two weeks working with a dialect coach to “lock” the sound of the character. She records herself reading a page of the script, then compares it to a native speaker’s recording. She marks every vowel shift and consonant drop. “If the ‘t’ in ‘water’ sounds like a Prague ‘t’, the audience will stop listening to the emotion and start listening to the accent,” she explains.

In the rich tapestry of Czech theatre and film, few names carry the quiet, versatile weight of Jana Čtveráčková . To the casual viewer, she is the familiar face from Terapie (the Czech adaptation of In Treatment ), the sharp-witted presence in Most! , or the nuanced performer in dozens of Czech crime series. But to ask her colleagues and international festival directors the question, “Co si můžete zahrát anglicky?” (What can you play in English?) is to open a door into a remarkable second career—one that bridges the linguistic and cultural gap between Central Europe and the Anglophone world. Jana Ctverackova - Co si muzete zahrat anglicky

She admits that performing for a native English audience versus a Czech audience is radically different. “For Czechs listening to English, they are forgiving of small errors. For Brits or Americans, they expect perfection. But here’s the secret: They also love a slight, unplaceable accent. It makes you exotic but not foreign. That’s the sweet spot.” Why It Matters: The Industry Need for Bilingual Actors The question “Co si můžete zahrát anglicky?” is becoming increasingly urgent in the Czech entertainment industry. With the rise of international streamers (Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon) shooting in Prague, there is a constant demand for local actors who can play “European” characters without dubbing. However, most of these roles are small: the waiter, the police officer, the nurse. Before she even learns her lines, she spends

The next time a casting director in Prague, London, or New York asks, “Co si můžete zahrát anglicky?” they will already know the name. They will already have seen the reel. And they will already understand that Jana Čtveráčková isn’t just a Czech actor who speaks English. “If the ‘t’ in ‘water’ sounds like a

She got the role. Today, Jana Čtveráčková is not stopping at English. When asked “Co si můžete zahrát anglicky?” she now often counters with “A co německy? Nebo francouzsky?” (And what about German? Or French?). She is currently learning German for an Austrian film role and has a working knowledge of French for future theatre collaborations.

While many Czech actors shy away from English-language roles due to accent or a lack of training, Čtveráčková has made it a defining pillar of her professional identity. This feature explores how a graduate of DAMU (Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts) became one of the most sought-after bilingual actors in the country, what “playing in English” actually entails for her, and why this skill has reshaped her career trajectory. Jana Čtveráčková’s relationship with English began long before she stepped onto a professional stage. Unlike many of her peers who learned English through mandatory school lessons, Čtveráčková immersed herself in the language out of pure curiosity. Growing up in the post-Velvet Revolution 1990s, she devoured British and American films, often watching them without subtitles. “I loved the rhythm of English,” she once said in an interview with Český rozhlas . “It felt like a different way of thinking, not just a different set of words.”

Her advice to young Czech actors is blunt: “Do not wait for the international casting director to find you. You must walk into the room and answer the question before they ask it. Say: ‘I can play your lead. And I can do it in your language.’” Perhaps the most famous answer to “Co si můžete zahrát anglicky?” came during a 2022 casting session for a Dutch-Czech psychological thriller. The director, knowing Čtveráčková’s reputation, asked her to improvise a three-minute monologue as a woman confessing to a murder—in English, with a specific regional American accent (Baltimore).